South East London blogzine - things that are happening, things that happened, things that should never have happened. New Cross, Brockley, Deptford and other beauty spots. EMAIL US: transpontine@btinternet.com Transpontine: 'on the other (i.e. the south) side of the bridges over the Thames; pertaining to or like the lurid melodrama played in theatres there in the 19th century'.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Jeffery Farnol (1878-1952) was an immensely popular novelist in the first half of the 20th century, famous for his swashbuckling romantic tales set in Regency England. Though born in Birmingham, he grew up in Lee at 6 Dorville Road. His brother recalls him flying kites on Blackheath, and later enrolling 'at the Goldsmiths Institute at New Cross, London S.E., to study in the "Life Classes" of the Painting School, three nights a week'. As he found success he bought a house of his own in Lee, in 1912, at 71 Eltham Road. Later he moved to the South Coast.

In my search for South London folk songs, I came across this section of his 1921 novel Martin Conisby's Vengeance. The scene, which features a politically dubious battle aboard ship with a 'vile blackamor', includes what appears to be a sailors song about Deptford:

'presently I heard the scrape of a viol somewhere beyond the bulkheads that shut me in and therewith a voice that sang, the words very clear and distinct:

Oh, Moll she lives in Deptford town,In Deptford town lives she;Let maid be white or black or brown.Still Moll's the lass for me;Sweet Moll as lives in Deptford town,Yo-ho, shipmates, for Deptford town,Tis there as I would be.

With this singing I thought to hear the heavy thud of an unshod foot on the planking above my head, and setting my teeth I gripped my knife in sweating palm. now (and to my despair) came the singing again to drown all else, hearken how I would:

Come whistle, messmates all.For a breeze, for a breezeCome pipe up, messmates all, For a breeze.When to Deptford town we've rolledWi' our pockets full o' gold;Then our lasses we will holdOn our knees, on our knees.

In the dark was the sudden, thin complaint of a rusty and unwilling bolt, though if this were to my right or left, above or below me, I could not discover and my passionate listening was once more vain by reason of this accursed rant:

Who will not drink a glass,Let him drown, let him drown;Who will not drink a glass, Let him drown.Who will not drink a glassFor to toast a pretty lass,Is no more than fool and ass;So let him drown, let him drown!

...Who will not kiss a maidLet him hang, let him hang;Who fears to kiss a maid, Let him hang.Who will not kiss a maidWho of woman is afraid,Is no better than a shade;So let him hang, let him hang!"

Is this a genuine folk song? In fact it looks like parts of two songs with the 'Moll she lives in Deptford town' verse scanning very differently to the rest. The remaining three verses do sound like a coherent song, even if they are a pastiche. Although I haven't found any trace of this song elsewhere, it has an authentic structure. Whether invented by Farnol or not, it works as a song - for instance it pretty much fits with the tune to the old gallows song Sam Hall.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dale Farm is a travellers site in Basildon facing imminent eviction. Richard Sheridan, President of The Gypsy Council says: 'the local council has set aside nearly three million pounds to clear some 100 of our families from the district - a move against a vulnerable minority clearly designed to win votes from the extreme right (the BNP has 4000 supporters here). Already Basildon District Council has engaged the notorious Gypsy eviction specialists Constant & Co. to do their dirty work... At Dale Farm, God willing, we can hel turn the tide of racism that has been sweeping over Roma in all parts of Europe. Please stand with us'.

London No Borders will be showing a number of films about Dale Farm and the eviction of Travellers, and will be discussing how support can be given to the struggle against what is experienced by them as ethnic-cleansing. Suggested donation: £3

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ken Loach's film Looking for Eric (starring Eric Cantona) is being shown a the Albany in Deptford on March 10th, with the added attraction of an appearance by the director himself for a question and answer session.

There will also be a couple of short films by local film makers, including Bale by Al MacKay and N25 (yes, the nightbus) by Goldsmiths graduate Treasa O’Brien. All courtesy of Urban Screen.

Yet another Deptford history blog on the block. London's Lost Garden aims to explore the history of Sayes Court, the 17th century garden of John Evelyn in Deptford - now remembered in the local Sayes Court Park. Only one post at the blog so far, but promises more.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Excellent article - by Tim Burrows in the Daily Post (5 February 2010) on the clubbing history of Southwark. There's even a helpful map for the South London disco tourist. Among the places featured are:

- the Royal Oak, Tooley Street (demolished to make way for the Hilton hotel) - the location for Nicky Holloway's pre-acid house Special Branch soul/disco nights in the 1980s, where Danny Rampling, Pete Tong and Gilles Peterson also DJed.

- Shoom - Rampling's early acid house night, held in the Fitness Centre on Thrale Street (Southwark Bridge end).

- Clink Street - home to the RIP parties in 1988, legendary hooligan house: 'Chelsea fans and Arsenal fans would warily eye each other up but later on they’d be having a right good chat and dance, just chilling, which was obviously due to the ecstasy' (Mark Easton).

- Jacks, 7-9 Crucifix Lane - still going, this was the venue for Andy Wetherall's Sabresonic parties in the mid-1990s.

Much of this activity took place amidst the ruins of dockside industry, but before the developers moved in. Until the 1960s, the Pool of London between London Bridge and Tower Bridge was a thriving dock, but it was all over by the end of the 1970s. The article quotes Rampling: “It was rundown. The whole south side of the river was a series of closed warehouses and industrial units, so it was like a ghost town after dark. But the night spots that sprang up drew people into the area from far and wide.” In this supposed wasteland, London acid house and rave culture was born.

The Daily Post is a temporary free newspaper linked with the Red Bull Music Academy, a month long series of musical happenings with its HQ also on Tooley Strreet.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Seemingly New Cross-based photographer (and sometime No Pain in Pop associate) Ellen Rogers gets interviewed by Matthew Sheret at Global Comment. The article starts with a little SE14 vignette: 'Maybe it’s the coffee, but on the way into New Cross the graffiti only seems to say ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’. Alongside the railway line, for what seems like a full five minute stretch, mounds of garbage and industrial waste hurtle and spill, a vista of twisted white metal, most of it less than a decade old. It’s now just trashed and dashed between old railway arches and cracked shutters, poked at by men in yellow jackets riding yellower machines, sharp and torn and used. It’s hateful, but London puts up with it... and suddenly I’m not on the train anymore. I’m in a cafe surrounded by the fsssssh-pak of an espresso machine and the retro-jazz of New Cross with photographer Ellen Rogers'.

Monday, February 15, 2010

As mentioned here before, Mark Perry of the great punk band Alternative TV (as well as being editor of punk zine Sniffin' Glue) was living in Deptford at the time - to be precise at 24 Rochfort House, Grove Street. This November 1978 interview from the radical magazine The Leveller mentions that he went to West Greenwich secondary school and had an unsuccessful trial for MillwallFC.He also expounds on his DIY philosophy with Deptford Fun City records.

Click on images to enlarge - I haven't transcribed the whole thing, but here's some sections:

How is it done at Deptford Fun City?With ATV we go in and produce the record ourselves, cut it and get it pressed. That way, it you do it wrong it's all your own fault. I sit down and design the cover. We get the photos taken, nick a SLADE sticker. We organise and distribute the ads - all dwon the line. It's all about doing it yourself.

I don't worry about anything. Record companies make you worry, come up and say, 'Look I don't think there's a single there lads'. So you get these 18 year old kids going mad trying to make a hit single... and they've signed for five years.

Tom Robinson says he signed with EMI because he wanted to reach the largest possible audience.We get to 5000 people on Deptford Fun City. Directly to them -crash. The profits come right back to us and we put it into the next record. We don't own oil wells and all that. Tom Robinsom sells 20 -30,000, making profits for EMI, which I don't think is a good thing. The people who really wanted it would've bought it anyway. You don't know what dastardly things people like EMI are into.

Why have you never done a Rock Against Racism gig?There's a lot of bands doing it and I don't think it needs ATV. In the end it's down to if you enjoy a RAR gig and I never have. What we did enjoy was the SUS benefit in Deptford. SUS - the campaign against the vagrancy laws - was a little thing run by the blacks in the community. RAR's more of an organisation ... I went on the march, but didn't fancy the gig [Carnival]. What they're doing's great. But RAR needs a wham-bam, Generation X type band. And we're not like that. A band can't change the world. And I still think there'd have been a fair few there at the Carnival without any bands. No, playing for nothing and selling albums cheap are the positive productive things you can do for people.

And that's why you did the free tour with Here and Now, the squatter/hippie band from Ladbroke Grove?Yeah, we went on the tour. They did 30 dates, we did 15 of them. They did us a good turn by organising it and we did them one by making an album of it, 'What you see is what you are', with them on one side and us on the other. It was funny like when we played at Stonehenge, quite a few punks came along and were really freaked out standing next to these long-haried hippes. Another free concert we did there were three bands - all playing for nothing -which isn't bad. This kid comes up to me 'What you playing with this bunch of hippies for? Why don't you play down the club?" I said 'Look you've saved a quid aint' you? Have a couple more drinks'.

You chose the name Alternative TV because that's what pisses you off more than anything, the brain-softening mass media?Power is in the hands of those rich enough to buy it, especially in culture. Because if everybody was involved we'd all do it so much better. Look at kids in school bashing around in the music room, playing great music on cymbals and all that. Then when they get out of school, with all the trash put out on the radio, they forget about the music room. I think it's a shame. I played xylophone, violin, trombone at school. I'm still like that now. So-called hip kids are all guitarists - that's all they do. They play All Right Now, play solo just the way it is on record.

No, most people with the arts thing in their bonce know nothing about life, use it to buy white powder. The people who need it can't get it. I really hate Harpers & Queen - they went all through punk and decided it was finished. Five pages on my life and I hated those bastards. They don't know what it's all about. They're living in Chelsea with their rich Daddies. If they lived up the road from Mullins, a big factory in Deptford, with their Dad watching ITV, buying the Mirror and Sun ... They don't know about things like people having to find a flat, your Dad getting chucked out the docks 'cos the docks have closed.

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Skate Park Action Group were out leafleting last weekend as part of their campaign to get some skate facilities in the New Cross area (Telegraph Hill Ward).

They are having a consultation day on Saturday 27th February from 11am - 3pm in Telegraph Hill Lower Park - on the basketball court. There will be a chance to comment on designs and options for potential sites, skating workshops and a free mobile skate park for the day.

What is being proposed is not a big skate park like on Peckham Rye but a smaller, low impact facility that can be fitted into one of a number of local under-used spaces. With skateboarding once again popular in the area, it sounds like a good idea.

My personal preference, which would fit in with the Bold Vision plans for a new community cafe at the Telegraph Hil Centre, would be to pedestrianise the section of Kitto Road by the church (i.e. the one way section between the top of Pepys Road and Jermingham). You could then add skate facilities, and open the new cafe out directly on to the park.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lots coming up at South East London Folklore Society, starting this Thursday 11th February with Jack Gale talking on 'ATOZOMANCY - the Game of Chance and the Speaking of the Landscape, how shamanism, Chaos Magic and Earth Mysteries take tea together with the London A to z!'

The on 11th March Alan Murdie will talk on 'Unknown Ghosts of London', followed on 8th April by Alan Brook on 'Haunted Pubs of London', and on 13th May by Janet Dowling on 'Fierce and fearless Women'.

There's also a special SELFS-hosted event coming up on the 25th March (6pm-9pm) on Southwark Lore, with songs and stories from John Constable, Nigel of Bermondsey and more - further details to follow. This one will be at the Old Mayfair Carpet Gallery, 301-303 Borough High Street, Southwark, London, SE1 1JH, a temporary gallery/project space.

Southwark Mysteries

John Constable meanwhile is busy preparing for the staging of The Southwark Mysteries in Southwark Cathedral in April, where it was first performed in 2000. Remarkably, he was featured extensively in last week's BBC Songs of Praise talking about the play cycle and its links to Cross Bones burial ground, also shown in the programme which was themed around Modern Southwark.

John is blogging about the preparations for the play at 100 days of Southwark Mysteries, where you can read about the call out for members of the community cast.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

It's been a year since The Telegraph opened at the old Earl of Derby in Dennets Road SE14, and some new people are taking over running it - John and Leila Davie. To mark the change of management they are having a party next Friday 12th February from 6:30 to 8:00 pm complete with drink (well it is a pub) and complimentary Cassoulet.

As well as food, drink and general conviviality, the pub already has a regular Monday night quiz night with salsa/Latin dance classes planned, presumaby upstairs in the function room.

French for Cartridge are celebrating the release of their new album Liquorice (Dinner with Daisy records) with a week-long residency 'pop-up shop' at Speedies, the retro shop in Shoreditch.

Last night they did a short acoustic set with Catherine Kontz (keyboards, vocals and stylophone) and Henri Vaxby (guitar, vocals and autoharp) accompanied by DJ Walde's human beatbox - the striking black haired figure standing in front of them in the photo is in fact a mannequin. Often described as 'art pop', they certainly have plenty of interesting time signatures and experimental touches as befits a band originally formed by students at Goldsmiths music department in New Cross with a mission to make 'atonal pop' music. But the pop part of the equation is also very much present with otherworldly melodies and strong songs. Henri, incidentally, is also part of Finnish indie popstersIcons of Elegance.

The rest of the week at Speedies (81 Redchurch Street London E2) includes varous sound installations and performances, including of John Cage's Cartridge from which the band took their name (I believe the 'French for' bit was added later to avoid confusion with another similarly monikered band). On Friday 12th February from 7:30 there's the Liquorice album launch party with support from KawaKawa.

Oh in line with the album's name there's also a selection of free liquorice sweets and some nice liquorice tea!

Full details of events over the week at the band's website. From the album, here's 'Oooh!' (film by Riccardo Arena):

(OK French for Cartridge are currently East rather than South London based, but they were formed at Goldsmiths in New Cross, used to live in Lewisham, and still teach piano, guitar and songwriting to kids in New Cross - so that's enough to justify me crossposting this from my music site to Transpontine)

Monday, February 08, 2010

Never let it be said that the BNP is not an equal opportunities employer. Why, they are happy to employ people with a background in all sorts of neo-nazi factions, not just those who have been consistently loyal to leader Nick Griffin.

According to Adam Bienkov at Liberal Conspiracy, BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook has employed Tess Culnane, who stood for the National Front in competition with the BNP candidate for the London Assembly seat of Greenwich and Lewisham in 2008. She has also associated with the openly Hitler-worshipping British People's Party.

Seemingly she has now been welcomed back into the BNP, which she left in 2006 citing differences with the leadership. She stood for the BNP in the February 2009 Lewisham Council byelection in Downham ward. You can get a flavour of her supporters on various far right forums which I won't link to here. Here's once choice comment: 'Thank you Tess, The foreigners and queers who run Lewisham on behalf of our parasite enemies did not have an unchallenged contest'.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

I went to the exhibition at Kender Primary School last week about Transport for London's plans to change the traffic flows around the Kender triangle area. Essentially it is planned to scrap the one way system at that end of New Cross, so that New Cross Road and Queens Road become two way roads. Good news for people living in Kender Street and Besson Street, in that the traffic will no longer be diverted through them.

Rather sadly, the works will more or less eradicate our beloved Island opposite the White Hart pub on the junction of New Cross Road and Queens Road, with the railings and remains of the underground toilets disappearing. The Gas Lamp will survive however, being moved on to an extended pavement by the pub. It was saved from destruction before thanks to a campaign by local historian Jess Steele and others in the 1990s, and is now a Grade II listed building. This time around it has found another local advocate in the form of Adrian Bradbury, who has not only researched its history but secured agreement from TfL and NXGNDC to pay for it to be turned back into a working gas-lamp, lit automatically every night.

Adrian has kindly agreed for Transpontine to feature extracts from his article, which has been published in full by the Telegraph Hill Society as 'The Gas Lamp at New Cross Gate (No. 7 in an occasional series of historical notes on the local area)':

'The Gas Lamp in the centre of the island at New Cross Gate is perhaps one of the Gate’s most instantly recognisable features, but, as local historian Jess Steele revealed in her brilliant and successful campaign to save it from destruction in the 1990s, this is no ordinary lamp-post.

Not only is it of some interest to engineers: it doubles up as a ventilation pipe for the (nowderelict) toilets below ground; it is also of great interest to historians: it is Grade II listed for embodying the only design of Scottish architect Alexander Thomson’s work to survive south of the border... Alexander “Greek” Thomson (1817–75), is described by historian Gavin Stamp as “Scotland’s greatest Victorian architect”. He brought Greek, Egyptian and Levantine influences to bear on his design of buildings throughout Glasgow the Firth of Clyde.

Incredibly much of his work was demolished in the 1950s and 60s in the name of progress, though still standing today are his Egyptian Halls in Union Street, which is where the story of our lampstandard begins. The Egyptian Halls were built in 1870-72 and six lamp-standards with complementary Egyptian pattern were erected on the pavement outside. These lamp-standards were manufactured by the Saracen Foundry of Walter Macfarlane & Co.

[The Glasgow lamp-standards were removed soon after, apparently because they did not have planning permission]

...So how come residents of New Cross Gate now have a lamp-standard identical to those pulled down in Union Street, Glasgow? We can only guess that George Jennings, Sanitary Engineer for the Greenwich District Board of Works, had a copy of Macfarlane’s catalogue on his shelf when he commissioned public conveniences to be built on our site in 1897, and chose that very same design. He needed a ventilation pipe, but presumably wanted to disguise it as a lampstandard, as was common architectural practice in those times....

1900

1923

Incidentally, the only other example of Thomson’s work to survive outside Scotland is an identical lamp to ours which was commissioned for a similar set of public conveniences inthe triangular road junction where New Cross Road meets Lewisham Way. These toiletswere destroyed but the lamp-standard was saved and replanted a few yards away in Clifton Rise, opposite the New Cross Inn

The New Cross Gate lamp-standard, the original ornamental iron-work around the toilets and the cannon bollards marking out the edge of the original pedestrian island, which were cast in the same Saracen Foundry as the lamp-standard, have all survived to the current day, although the toilets themselves are now closed and derelict'.

1850 - the turnpike that put the gate in New Cross Gate, before the lamp

1910

1933

Artist's impression of the future, with lamp moved and a small pedestrian island replacing the current structure (click to enlarge)

Work is due to start this month on changing the roads around and will take the best part of a year. My only concern, other than largely aesthetic considerations about the loss of island railings and toilets, is about the pedestrian crossing. It looks like people would need to cross from the south side of New Cross Road onto a small island, then cross Queens Road at the junction, then cross New Cross Road from outside the White Hart. This would be three stages instead of the current two, and not a straight line either. The result could be that people could be tempted to take a short cut across a very busy road. Why not have a proper pedestrian crossing straight across the road just a bit further up past the junction towards the bus garage?

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Cafe Crema in New Cross Road is closed for February for decorating and garden maintenance, but they will still be doing Thursday night films shows.

And tonight they are hosting one of their New Orleans, New Cross piano jams. Bring along instruments and voices and join in. 8 'til late at 306 New Cross Road (admission free). It's a lot of fun - see review of a previous session.

Friday, February 05, 2010

Old Deptford History's title is self-explanatory. This one will certainly be giving Caroline's Miscellany and Transpontine a run for our money, combining as it does some proper archival research with an interesting family history angle particularly focused on Albury Street.

Already some good material up on the Irish National League (local headquarters at 35 Albury Street) and a folklore goldmine about 34 Albury Street. Family stories, backed up by press cuttings from 1950 and 1977, tell of a haunted attic, a hidden doorway, and a local legend of secret assignations there between Lord Nelson and his lover Lady Caroline.

Then there's Shipwright's Palace, focusing on the maritime history of Deptford. Only a few posts so far, but again looks very promising with some referenced research, architectural drawings and much more.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

There was a good turn out at St Catherine's Church (SE14) last Friday for the Bold Vision benefit with 250+ people packed in for a programme of music, comedy and drama. It's clear that momentum is growing to convert the empty undercroft of the Telegraph Hill Centre in Kitto Road into a community cafe, with £30,000 already raised towards the estimated total budget of £80,000.

As well as local classical musicians playing the Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns, music included blues band Little Devils and Mazaika, whose Russian accordionist Igor Outkine played a selection of Abba songs. They've both been featured on Transpontine before, but new to me was Kat Drake - a New Cross-based folk singer with a beautiful voice. She has even written a song called Telegraph Hill, so that's another one down for the great South London songbook.

Here she is singing a version of Damien Rice's Volcano with the American singer Tommy Wallach:

Kat is also part of Cloak and Dagger, up and coming electro-folk outfit. Here's the video for their track Along Came the Spider:

Monday, February 01, 2010

A while ago Transpontine organised a successful afternoon of South London Songs as part of the Hillaballoo festival in New Cross. At this site, we have featured many songs connected in various ways to South London.

Wonder if anybody is interested in getting together to learn, play and perform some of these songs, maybe even write some new ones?

The notion is to get together a group of acoustic musicians and singers with a view to getting together a performance later in the year. Whether people wanted to take this further and become an ongoing band would be reviewed later on, but for this stage it would involve a few months of rehearsals, to take place at child friendly times every couple of weeks. Enthusiasm definitely more important than experience or virtuosity.

If you might be up for it, get in touch via the email at the top of the site.

We recently featured Franco Rosso's 1980 reggae movie Babylon, largely filmed in Deptford. At Uncarved, John Eden notes a few occurrences of samples from the film, most notably on Dizzee Rascal's Tek No More on his latest album. This track, produced by originaljunglist Shy FX, features a sample from Aswad’s Warrior Charge (from the Babylon soundtrack) as well as BrinsleyForde's chant 'Can’t Tek No More of That' from the film's closing scene.

The end of Babylon, filmed I believe, in the Crypt of St Paul's Church, Deptford:

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